is what I find in my hand this morning, as I pull things from my scrapbag.
Another piece of equilter.com Halloween.
Counted blessings this morning after a afternoon and evening of heavy storms. A few beat up petunias,and scattered flowers on my patio, buts part of WI and MN experienced tornadoes. I've heard up to 41 homes destroyed south of me, lots and lots of hail damage. One dealership in the Metro area, all 280 new cars in their lot totally destroyed. They reported baseball size (3.5"+) hail hitting the sun roof and windshields ! Actually went right through the roof of some cars. I got a few hail pieces that were golf ball size, but most were between a nickle and a quarter. Still pretty big! No damage to property here . Very fierce winds, probably the strongest I've seen in WI..appeared to be straight line, but it's hard to tell as I'm on the edges of prairie.
Luckily I didn't lose power, and was able to keep on top of weather reports til it was over. It was fast moving, and probably in Michigan or Ill. by now.
Anyway,on a different note, I wondering if others out here have a fascination with words and how they got to be what we use or call things?
Way back in the later 70's with DD#2 and a spelling lesson. She was so proud in (1st or 2nd grade) to get a 100% on her spelling tests. She was so pleased that she had spelled "flower" correctly. As we talked about it, I causally mentioned there is more than one way to spell flower. So of course, being true to HER nature, she didn't believe me. If there were more than one, she wouldn't have gotten it correct in the test.
So I showed her the white stuff I bake with is also called flower, but spelled flour. She still didn't believe me...LOL. Oh well.
Sometime down the road she found out for herself that you spell flower as flour if you are baking with it. And more or less said to me, "huh", there really IS another way to spell flower".
What she didn't realize is that the mulitple spellings a word that is pronounced the same way, is a little game I play with myself. Gotta keep those gray cells stimulated!!
Last night I was laying in bed, waiting for sleep to find me, and I began thinking. Already...a bad thing when you need to sleep.
What word might have the MOST possible spellings for the same pronounciation??? I can think about this one for a long time now...LOL
But here's one I came up with:
1.since
2.sense
3.cents
4.scents
seems like I had one more, but I must have fallen asleep right about then..*VBG*
How about you? Horse-hoarse? Blue-blew? Do young people still have the vocabulary skills that the schools used to emphasize? Does it matter? Probably not, but language is such a rich gift we all share, seems a shame.
In college bound English, as a senior, we were given a list of 20 vocabulary words a day, to memorize the spelling and know the definiation. I probably will never forget the defination of osmosis...LOL
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23 comments:
Hi Finn, So glad the storm didn't cause you much damage -- sounds like a terrible one. Here in SoCal we get upset if the I-405 is pummelled by a heavy mist causing traffic to back up *s*
We sometimes play your word game. Andy and I are usually up for any kind of competition. I can't think of any other 4 word combos, but I think rains, reins, reigns is my favorite. I'll be thinking about words all day now *s*
I definitely think about those things (English language teacher)! Some of it depends on where you're from, though. Since and sense aren't the same for me! One I use with my students is caught and cot. For me, they're the same. For others, they aren't! Glad you didn't get too much damage from the storm. I spent two summers in Kansas and know the damage large hail can do. (hail/hale!)
What neat Halloween fabrics your are finding. Thank goodness you are OK. How awful for all the people who suffered damage seems like the last year and a half or so the whole country is experiencing strange, extreme weather. Talk about a climactic shift! That as got to be really scary to see hail that big. The biggest I've ever seen around here is less than 1/2" in diameter.
Oh yes, we are definitely word freaks in our house. We used to play dictionary games as kids. My mother would find a new word in the dictionary for us to learn that day. We were to use it in a sentence several times during the day to set the meaning into our brains. We loved the way the words "felt" rolling around our mouth as we said them. Some of my favorites were oxymoron, myriad, and ubiquitous. Later we played the dictionary game this way - someone would find a strange word and would read it outloud. Everyone else would make up a meaning to the word, and the person with the dictionary would write downt he real meaning. Then the dictionary person would read all the meanings and we would vote for which one we thought was the real one. Much later - about 15 or so years ago - someone came out with the same game commercially - Balderdash. Our family is working on the card set in the second edition. Most of us are crossword puzzle nuts too. No resting or getting old for our brains - at least no more than we can help LOL!
word games and puzzles are great ways to keep your mind sharp plus keep you curious and learning. Maybe that is why sudoku caught on like it did.
Those straight line winds can be just as bad as any tornado--the hail too. Glad you are okay but feel bad for those that were not as fortunate. I guess we are watching the tropical storms heading towards the Gulf again down here.
i agree that a good knowledge of vocabulary is essential. keep feeding that brain!! you are what you eat so to speak..
btw great skulls!
Homonym resolution was the hardest thing as a court reporter when we went to computerized transcripts. You/ewe had to/two/too instantly think of the correct way/weigh to write/right/rite the word so/sew the computer could read/reed it. See/sea? [Remind me to tell you about the brief form I stenoed in one day for "if you can" that totally embarassed me when it popped up on the monitor! Been retired for 12 years and I'm STILL mortified over that oops!]
That storm was horrible. Happy you're safe and sustained no damage. I was worried about all my friends over in that part of the country!
((HUGS))
Sorry Finn, hate to spoil your list, but that's not how you pronounce "since". :) Love Love Love the skulls.
I remember 2 hail storms in my life. One when I was in highschool that dimpled all the aluminum siding on our house and both cars. The second was about 10 years ago at a softball game, and all the cars in the lot were severly damaged including mine! Took 3 days to bang out all those dents!
Glad you are okay and survived without damage!
I don't play that type of word game but I do something a little different. I love music, most any type of music. I usually try to make up a "set" of three songs that have something in common: same composer, same theme, a phrase the same in the song. Here, or example, is a simple one: Cheeseburger in Paradise by Jimmy Buffet, Oreo Cookie Blues by Lonnie Mack, Malted Milk by Eric Clapton. What's the relationship of these 3 songs? Fattening Food. Just my little game to keep the gray matter active. /paula
I've played word games for as long as I can remember - crosswords, anagrams, word searches. I loved spelling and vocabulary in school. I can't think of any 4 word homonyms, but I'm sure I'll keep thinking about it.
So glad you're safe and sound through all of the storms. What next!
Ohhh...you've got my wheels spinning now, Finn...with your word game. Another word game that we always played back in 1st and 2nd grade was to choose a somewhat larger word...and then *locate* as many words as one could from that first spoken word. (Phwew! Sure made more sense when my teacher, Mrs. Kost explained it!)
Hugs to you! ((0))
Finn - you have way too much on your mind when you go to bed!!! :) Those skulls are very scarey looking. Leave it to you or Tonya to have fabric with them on! Wait till you see what fabric I found tonight and what I'm going to do with it! Keep watch!
Hey how about:
carat
caret
carrot
karat
(I personally like karat!!!) And yes it did take me awhile to think of this....
Glad you are safe from the bad storms that rocked your area. I'm keeping an eye (I) on the tropics. We had a lightning storm yesterday that rocked our log cabin. Three dogs running for my lap. LOL.
My favorite book still is the dictionary.. Keep the gray (grey) matter working there...Love your quilting. Good night and quilting dreams from Florida.. hee..hee..
Word games are fun. No four word homonyms come to mind right now!
Glad you suffered no storm damage..
Here's one for you, Finn:
air
e'er
ere
err
heir
and if in England, are, which is a small portion of a hectare.
But I didn't find it myself, like a good little reference librarian, I googled it... :)
Here's a list for you -
http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html
I was thinking to, two and too, and their, they're, there.
Both my kids have been to college and I still have to check their papers(only when they ask). A lot of English fell by the wayside when "whole reading" came into being.
Glad that storm didn't affect you too bad, Finn. They're saying that a tornado hit Long Island, NY. I think that's a first.
Oh, Finn, what a great post. Yes at lease some of our young people are learning good language skills. Maybe not by the memory method you did but they are becoming competent and loving to play with words too. Thanks for only sending the storm remnants to me in MI. :)
Can I get away with the "lease" thing being a joke? My fingers do whatever they want to or maybe it is my brain. Sometimes they get together and make an absolute fool of me.
Love the word game too Finn. I think anyone who blogs loves words! Another word game that comes to my mind is the different words used in different industries. I'm in the skydiving industry so words such as boogie, heads-down, reserve, main, 9-cell, breakoff, tandum, and yes...bounce all have different meaning to me than anyone else. Glad that the storm passed without too much damage, we had it here near Chicago too but not as bad as you did.
So glad that you survived the storm and I hope I never see baseball size hail in my life...Hail, Hale...just got side-tracked there...LoL...I'll probably be doing that all day now. Everytime I say a word, I'll be thinking of other spellings for it.
Love that skeleton fabric! What will you use it for? I am on a Halloween kick right now LOL.
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